


One Hour Later

by crowleymurderous



Category: Grand Theft Auto Online - Fandom, Grand Theft Auto V
Genre: Awkwardness, Drinking, Drinking & Talking, Drunken Kissing, Grand Theft Auto Online, Implied Sexual Content, Infidelity, M/M, Major Character(s), Making Out, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Oneshot, Original Character(s), Sexual Tension, Spoilers, Unresolved Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:20:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26011039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crowleymurderous/pseuds/crowleymurderous
Summary: To cope with the pressure of stopping Avon Hertz and his godlike AI, Alex invites Lester over for a bottle of wine and a chance to take a breather for a little while. Things start to heat up when the alcohol begins setting in.Takes place after the events of the Doomsday Act 2 Finale.
Relationships: Lester Crest/GTA Online Protagonist, Lester Crest/Original Male Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	One Hour Later

**Author's Note:**

> I return from not having written anything in years (???) to writing this lil thing!!  
> I'm still self-conscious about my skill in writing so please let me know what you think of this n if there are areas I can improve !!
> 
> GTAV (online in particular) has consumed me as of late n so I decided to come up with something to deal with the obsession :D
> 
> Lester's my all time favorite character n I'm a little sad that there isn't enough fanart/fanworks going around involving him,,, so I guess this is my way of paying tribute to him
> 
> This story involves my GTA online character, Alex Romero, who is this horny bastard of a criminal n has a purely sexual thing for Lester
> 
> In this timeline, the Casino heist happened first and the Doomsday heist second (because that was the order I completed it in my playthrough) so you will see mentions of Georgina Cheng
> 
> hope you enjoy!!!!!!

* * *

_“Avon is the real fucking bad guy?! Not the Russians? What? Hey, who saw that coming?”_

Alex pinched the bridge of his nose as he put a very angry Lester on speakerphone and set his phone down on the dashboard. He reclined in his seat, exhausted and definitely not in the mood to listen to the other man ramble about Avon this or Cliffford that. Taking a deep breath, he collected his thoughts and let his mind process the series of chaotic events that happened just hours prior.

He had just barely escaped the Ramius when Avon Hertz, billionaire tech mogul, and his pet AI Cliffford, revealed their true intention to the crew — to take over humanity — just as Alex had Bogdan within shooting range and the Russian got to talking about what Avon's grand scheme was. When the submarine was set to self-destruct in 30 seconds, it took everything Alex had to not get caught in the blast radius; even more so when he had to swim all the way back to shore with hastily fastened scuba gear and a hail of aircraft gunfire raining down from above.

“He always gave off the douchebag billionaire vibe, didn't he?” Alex answered, searching his pockets for a cigarette, and frowning when he found none. “I mean, I didn't see it coming… but I also kinda did.”

_“That's not the point! I... I don't even know what to say.”_

“‘Just take your hard-earned government cash and run’?”

_“Very funny,”_ replied Lester dryly. _“Why don't you go back to robbing banks, running guns, smuggling cargo, or… whatever the cool crooks are doing these days, then?”_

The Zion hummed to life as Alex started the engine, seeming just as eager to get out of the LSIA hangar as its driver. Being in the same space as the Avenger, let alone under the same roof, sparked an indescribable rage within him; it was a reminder of putting his and Kode's lives on the line for a rich egotistical maniac who, at the flick of a switch, betrayed them and tried to get them killed.

It was overwhelming, and the least Alex could do to alleviate the feeling was to drive away.

It did some good.

“Yeah, that's the easy way, isn't it?” he finally responded, the anger ebbing slowly but surely. “But if I don't stop him, humanity is fucked. Isn't that right?”

Lester hated to admit it, but he was right. Even if it meant Alex and Kode had to endanger their lives again, and again, and again, however many times it took to get the job done. _“Yeah. I'll just… see how this plays out.”_

Alex scoffed. “Sure.”

_“And in the meantime,"_ Lester spoke with a hint of ire, _“I'll try and contact that Russian captain, uh, Bogdan, to see what he knows.”_

The brunette narrowly missed a red light, his mind racing and his thoughts elsewhere other than on the road. He considered setting his GPS waypoint to Tequi-la-la — God knows he needed a drink — but dismissed the thought. No amount of alcohol could make him forget about the soul-crushing pressure of having to save humanity from a self-proclaimed AI god.

Instead, he chose to drive around mindlessly around the bustling city, until his thoughts wandered to something else other than booze and computers and being stabbed in the back. “Uh-huh, okay.”

There was a pause between them, and Alex almost thought the other man hung up - until his voice cracked to life from the dashboard. It was measured but aggravated.

_“We're gonna make Avon pay. Just wait for my call.”_

* * *

It was half past midnight when Alex stepped out of the bathroom, having just finished a hot shower to combat the chilly evening. He dried himself and rifled through his wardrobe in search of sleepwear, pausing as he heard his cellphone ring from the nightstand. A rush of mixed emotions overcame him when he read the caller ID.

Lester.

“Uh, hello?” he answered as he patted his hair dry and slipped into more comfortable clothing.

_“Hey, this is actually way more serious than I actually wanna believe,”_ Lester warned. _“Bogdan was right. Avon — well, Avon and Cliffford — have control of the country's defense system, and they're building their own private militia. The government are useless now—”_

“So—”

_“I know, I know, more useless than they were before.”_ The hacker audibly sighed. _"But Mrs. Rackman, she needs the help of the world's best bank robbers to pull off ‘one last job’.”_

Alex paced around the bedroom, with one hand on the phone and the other combing his curly hair over and over. “'One last job’? Mrs. Rackman just needs someone expendable to take care of the problem they didn't catch onto earlier on.”

_“Mrs. Rackman needs us because we're just as up shit creek as they are. And for the record, none of us caught on until Avon fucked us all in the sub.”_ The older man exhaled loudly, releasing the tension he didn't realize he had. _“Listen, I don't like working for the IAA either, but this is bigger than that right now.”_

“So what am I supposed to do?”

Lester paused, deep in thought — even though there was no other thought to consider. _“Well, if you want the work, head back to Planning with Kode and we'll finish this thing.”_

“Or…?”

_“Or just… take your money and run.”_

“Fuck that,” Alex snarled, hand gripping his phone tighter. “I'm a crook who likes getting away with money, that's a given, but fuck if I'm gonna let that bastard and his bastard computer take over the world!”

A laugh escaped the older man's lips. _“Yeah, that's what I thought. And believe me, I'm just as livid as you.”_

“You don't sound like it.”

_“That's because I've spent the past couple days ruminating and self-medicating and stewing in anger. And I've, uh, also tried coming up with a plan, but… nothing looks hopeful right now.”_

_No shit,_ Alex thought. He strode upstairs into the living room, a small smile settling on his lips when his eyes fell on a bottle of wine on the kitchen counter. Just what the doctor ordered.

“Hey Lest,” he began, voice lowered and tone mellow, “I just had a thought.” 

_“Does this thought involve stopping Avon?”_

“…No. But it does stop the fear of imminent death for a little while.”

Silence on the other line. Then, quietly, _“What did you have in mind? ”_

The brunette twisted the cork off the wine bottle, and carefully poured the maroon liquid in a glass. He gently sloshed it around, inhaling the fine scent of aged fruit and already feeling intoxicated by it. “You in the mood for getting drunk on wine while Los Santos Rock Radio blasts in the background?”

_“Is this your idea of a date? I'm not interested.”_

“No no, not a date,” Alex replied, the playful smirk on his face audible in his voice. “Think of it as… just friends hanging out. Drinking. Doing mind-numbing activities.”

Not another attempt at flirtation. It wasn't that Lester minded, so much as it was incredibly predictable of the other man to immediately turn to drinking when the going got tough. Admittedly Lester did the same, except instead of alcohol it was sleeping pills, and instead of dabbing into it occasionally it was every other night.

He sighed. Maybe wine wasn't such a bad idea.

_“…Fine. One drink.”_

* * *

“Lester fucking Crest! Good to see you.”

Alex flashed a grin at the hacker as he opened the door with a flourish. He moved to the side to let the other man in, who greeted him with a small nod. It took a moment for Lester to adjust to the interior of the apartment, but once he spotted the bottle of wine by the coffee table, he straightened up and made a beeline for the couch.

“I see nothing has changed since I was last here,” Lester commented, sitting down and setting his walking cane on the seat next to him. He inspected the bottle of wine, reading the manufacturer and date. Marlowe Vineyards, 1999. Not bad.

Alex strolled over and took a seat next to him, his body sinking into the plush couch and one arm dangling on the backrest. “Fleeca Job, wasn't it? That was a lifetime ago.”

“Yes, when you were still an up-and-coming criminal, eagerly looking to do their first heist while Uncle Lester holds their hand through it all,” said Lester, rolling his eyes. He glanced at the clock on the wall — 1:30 A.M. It was probably happy hour somewhere, and he convinced himself he deserved this drink.

“And now we've got a world to save.” Alex poured two glasses of wine and handed one to his companion. “What a fuckin' turn of events.”

A long moment of grim silence passed between the two as they finished glass after glass (and even popping open a new bottle), interrupted every now and then by the radio still playing classic rock tunes. The background music helped to fill the gnawing void in the back of their minds — the thought that, as they're spending their evening drinking to forget the eventual takeover of humanity, Avon is advancing the actual takeover with every passing minute. It felt like wasting time, sitting around doing nothing while they waited for further instructions, but at the same time they allowed themselves this moment of respite, albeit short.

It was all they could do to not just snap.

Lester was the first to break the silence. “You know, I… I feel like I'm to blame for this.”

Alex turned to him, confusion visible on his face. “What?”

“I brought Avon into your Facility, thinking I could pull a score worthy of a rich asshole's paycheck, and it turns out he's been lying to us this whole time and using your crew to do his dirty work.” Lester gulped the last of his wine before pouring another full glass. He swirled the liquid around, not looking up to meet Alex's gaze. “I hate him and his idiotic AI, but I hate that I let myself trust him even more.”

“Lest,” the brunette began, “You can't seriously think this is all your fault, right?”

“If I'm being honest? No, I don't think it's all my fault. But the self-loathing stings just the same.”

Alex was somewhat taken aback by his words. There Lester was, open and vulnerable and laying his emotions bare to him — maybe it was the alcohol loosening his tongue — and some part of Alex wished it was because the other man trusted him, even just a little bit, and not because he felt resigned to failure. Not that it was his first time witnessing vulnerability from Lester, but it was never to the extent of openly admitting hating himself. It was uncomfortable to hear; even more so witnessing it unfold before him.

And, one way or another, he wanted to be there for Lester.

“Alright, enough of this.” Alex plucked the other man's wine glass from his hand and set it down on the coffee table, much to the latter's chagrin. “You are not some slob who sits and lets rich bastards walk all over him — you're a fucking _killer_ , who hacks and steals and destroys and makes those rich bastards pay for ever wronging you.”

Lester blinked slowly as he attempted to process what the brunette had just said. “That was… a lot of words.”

“Yeah. It was.”

“Didn't realize we were buddy-buddy enough for me to warrant a pep talk.” The hacker glanced at his half-empty wine glass, pondering on whether or not he should let it go to waste, but the fog in his mind from the alcohol he'd previously finished decided that stopping at four glasses was probably a good idea.

Alex shook his head, the corners of his mouth tugging upwards in a smirk. “We're buddy-buddy enough to hang out and get drunk before our untimely demise. Isn't that what we're doing right now?”

“If you want to call it that.”

“Well, I did want to call it a date, but you beat me to it.”

Lester rolled his eyes so far back he could have sworn he saw the inside of his skull. He did that out of habit from constantly hearing flirty remarks, but a subconscious part of him probably couldn't stand to meet the other man's smoldering gaze. “Still on that, are you? Get your head out of your ass.”

“My head is filled with nothing but good thoughts,” Alex replied smugly, raising his hands in feigned defense. “Very, very good thoughts that may or may not involve you.”

“You are insufferable,” grumbled Lester, further refusing to look at the man grinning next to him. The more he distanced himself from Alex, the more Alex seemed to close that distance. And, Lester was starting to realize, the more frequently that happened, the less he felt like resisting.

This was… not good.

“Hey. Look at me.”

Lester finally found the courage to look at the brunette dead in the eyes, which were glazed and half-lidded from the effects of the wine. It was probably not the best idea to get inebriated with a man who knew his alcohol limit and yet always intentionally drank to get wasted. What ever happened to “one drink”?

“You're giving yourself so much shit for something you didn't even do,” said Alex, his tone seemingly genuine and serious for once. “That's not fair for yourself.”

“Yeah, well, life isn't fair. Avon's not gonna give a rat's ass if I wallowed in my own self-pity when he finally amasses his robot army and takes over America.”

“So we'll deal with it, if and when it happens. But I'm not gonna sit here and listen to you spout self-deprecating bullshit when you don't deserve it.”

_You don't deserve it._

The statement rattled inside Lester's brain, echoing louder and louder until it was all he could hear. He wasn't used to being consoled when he expressed contempt for himself, even when it was sarcastic, and to hear words of comfort be said so genuinely and in immediate response to his defeatist attitude…

Lester felt he didn't deserve it.

“Alex, I—”

He was interrupted by a pair of lips pressing against his own — warm, wet, and reminiscent of the taste of wine, and suddenly his mind went blank. It was a different sensation from Georgina's kiss, which was softer and more pleasant somewhat; this one felt hasty and needy and just a little bit itchy from the other man's stubble. It was as if everything happened all at once, and then in the same instant nothing at all.

Alex was the first to pull away, and he did so with surprising gentleness as he turned his head away from the older man. “…Fuck. Sorry.”

There was an uncomfortable silence that filled the room as they both processed what had just happened. This was not at all how Lester anticipated this night would go. He'd always been aware of Alex's playful flirting and disarmingly devious attitude, and he'd never stopped to consider if, beneath that charming facade, there was something more than that — something that resembled genuine attraction. He felt he was far from whatever Alex's guy type was (whatever it was), but here he was, in Alex's apartment, on his couch, drinking his wine, kissing his lips.

And he didn't even resist.

“I— wh… what—” Lester fumbled with his words as he tried to steady his breathing and collect his thoughts. Some part of him felt… unsatisfied, in a way, and he wasn't sure if he could endure it. “Why… why did you do that?”

His eyes met Alex's, which were dark and full of unreadable emotion, but the latter's reply conveyed all the emotion and feeling that needed to be said.

“Because I want you.”

And just like that their lips were upon each other's once again, with the same fervor and desperation as the moment before. It was a blurry mess of hungry nips, fingers tangled in hair, and the ever-present taste of wine with every breath they took. There was no need — no time to think of the how, or the why, or the what of the consequences that would surely follow (and of that there'd be many); what mattered now was the feeling of his hands, and his lips, and his tongue, and the burning desire to have them all on his body.

Lester's breath hitched as he felt the ghost of a hand trace the gentle dips and slopes of his chest, across his stomach, and finally stopping just at the buckle of his belt. He tried to stifle a gasp when a thumb dug into the inside of his waistband, seemingly eager to graze the skin beneath, but was quickly silenced by another ravenous kiss from the brunette, who showed no sign of slowing down.

“Lest— _fuck,_ I want you—”

Lester could feel impatient hands working on unbuckling his belt; clumsy as they were, they managed to unfasten the metal frame and loosen the strap, but not before he placed a hesitant hand on the other man's forearm.

“W-wait—” he panted as he gently pushed Alex's hands away. “N-not right now.”

The brunette paused, taking into consideration the refusal (and the utterance of “not _right now_ ”), and quietly slunk away to his side of the couch, not bothering to make eye contact. “Okay.”

It was slowly dawning on the both of them what had just happened, and the little moments that slowly led up to it. The invitation, the wine, the drunk conversation, the self-loathing, the gentle comfort, the kiss, the tongues, the touching, the craving of having his hands on him and on his legs and in between his—

_Stop it,_ Lester thought to himself. _It isn't right to want it._ He convinced himself he'd lose his sanity if he didn't quash these feelings and desires and tuck them away where nobody else would find them. He had never experienced this unique blend of physical yearning and the aching guilt that immediately followed — was this what committing infidelity felt like? Did it _count_ as infidelity? Georgina hadn't even spoken to him since the first successful Casino heist; he was beginning to think there wasn't anything going on between them at all, and maybe that's why he felt comfortable letting his guard down around Alex…

And look where that got him.

“I, uh, have to go,” Lester stammered, quickly fastening his belt buckle and grabbing his walking cane. He stood up abruptly, legs still shaky from earlier, but managed to steady himself in time.

Alex didn't even nod or acknowledge the older man's statement. Instead, he reached over for the pack of Redwoods on the coffee table, then leaned back on the couch as he took his time plucking one from the box and lighting it.

Lester took the hint and simply made his way to the front door, his footfalls the only audible sound in the room apart from the radio still playing classic rock. For all he knew, and he didn't know much, the other man regretted the impassioned moment they shared just minutes prior… or maybe he wasn't guilty at all.

“Lest.”

The hacker stood inches from the front door when he stopped dead in his tracks, turning his head and waiting for what Alex had to say with bated breath.

“Lemme know when Mrs. Rackman comes up with a plan, would you?”

Back to business, it seemed. The air was suddenly chilly, and Lester was certain it wasn't because of the weather. Whatever chemistry between them earlier had dissipated almost instantly, and whatever electricity was in the air had now been replaced by a palpable tension that almost made it difficult to breathe. The time on his watch read 2:30 A.M. — exactly one hour since they'd started drinking — but it felt like the whole night had passed them by in a blur of alcohol and breathlessness and unexplainable guilt.

Lester gave a small, almost imperceptible nod in Alex's direction, then twisted the knob of the front door. “Yeah.”

Without another word, he showed himself out the door and out of the apartment, leaving the other man to smoke in silence and contemplate on the events that just occurred.

Alex took one last drag and slowly exhaled, then stamped out the embers in the ashtray. As the last breath of smoke left his body, he felt a new sense of clarity wash over him, and suddenly the hollowness in his chest was filled with — remorse? Regret? Disdain for his own actions? He didn't expect the night to turn out this way; neither did Lester, he was sure, and yet they shared a moment where they were both vulnerable and more than willing to have each other, infidelity aside. Alex was no stranger to the awkwardness that came after a steamy session — he had his fair share of one night stands — but for some reason, this experience felt different. _Lester_ felt different. And it was something Alex couldn't shake off.

He just had to wait until Lester spoke to him again.

* * *


End file.
